


They Tell You Tattoos Are Addictive

by foxsmoulder



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 17:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13575672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxsmoulder/pseuds/foxsmoulder
Summary: “Those tears are mostly because that tattoo god is just too fucking pretty,” Lance sighed wistfully as he noticed another customer entering the shop. “The worst thing is, is that I can’t even do anything about it, because I’m fairly certain he’s got a boyfriend anyway.”“So your solution is to just keep going back to get more dumb tattoos that you pretend have meaning.” Pidge rolled her eyes at Lance’s indignant gasp. “Just so you can pine pathetically over some guy that you want, but can’t have?”“That’s about the size of it, yeah.” Lance whined.





	They Tell You Tattoos Are Addictive

**Author's Note:**

> This is all fluff, all of it. I felt I owed it after the last one, and tattoo artist Keith was an inevitability for me.  
> It's all just pleasant and cute.  
> Also, whenever I write Shiro, he always turns into a troll! I don't know what it is! I'm sorry if you hate that!  
> Enjoy!

“Lance, don’t be an idiot, you cannot get another tattoo.” Pidge scolded, eyes darting up to the scowling customer in front of her whilst she set about demolishing his name.

Lance was hardly paying attention as he absent-mindedly stroked his recently healed, still slightly tender, tenth tattoo.

“It’ll only be a small one,” Lance smiled softly to himself, tracing the outer edge of the tiny crescent moon on the inside of his wrist.

“’A small one’.” Pidge scoffed, thrusting a plastic lid on top of the steaming cup of coffee in her hand and placing it on the bar in front of her, offering the customer a smile through gritted teeth as he turned and left with disgust on his features. “A small one every time is still costing you about fifty bucks a pop, and you are a lowly student working in a crappy coffee shop. You absolutely cannot afford anymore tattoos, not to mention the fact you always come back bawling your eyes out.”

“Those tears are mostly because that tattoo god is just too fucking pretty,” Lance sighed wistfully as he noticed another customer entering the shop. “The worst thing is, is that I can’t even do anything about it, because I’m fairly certain he’s got a boyfriend anyway.”

“So your solution is to just keep going back to get more dumb tattoos that you pretend have meaning.” Pidge rolled her eyes at Lance’s indignant gasp. “Just so you can pine pathetically over some guy that you want, but can’t have?”

“That’s about the size of it, yeah.” Lance whined as he pushed himself off the counter he was leaning lazily against to greet the new customer approaching the register.

The new customer was all muscles and dark eyes, with the kindest, softest smile that Lance had ever had the honour to witness first hand.

“Welcome! What can I getcha?” Lance greeted brightly, and was filled with a warm joy as he was met with a glorious beam of white teeth in response.

“I’ll take a caramel latte with two extra shots,” He spoke, his voice just as delightful as his demeanour. “And a straight up black coffee.”

“Right away!” Lance grinned, side-eying Pidge as she leapt into action. “That’ll be $4.95!”

The customer nodded, the flash of white hair falling across his forehead bobbing as he did so, searching in his pockets for a five dollar bill and handing it over to Lance. Lance extended his hand to accept the money when suddenly the guy gripped Lance’s wrist gently with his prosthetic hand.

“Hey, nice tattoo, that looks pretty fresh.” He commented, admiring it with curious eyes. Lance couldn’t help the dumb smile that appeared on his face at the mention.

“Oh yeah, thanks! I got it a couple of weeks ago actually,” Lance smiled, taking the money and letting the register fly open so he could calculate his change. “There’s this super talented tattoo artist a couple of blocks from here! He’s amazing, he’s super nice and really cool, you should totally check him out if you’re interested!”

“Hey, that’s a crazy coincidence, I’m actually looking for a tattoo parlour round here!” The guy continued as he moved down the bar towards Pidge, who was regarding him with a strange look on her face, like she was trying to solve a particularly hard math problem. “I’m only here to visit so I don’t know the area very well, you wouldn’t be able to give me directions would you? I trust people more than I trust my phone’s GPS.”

“I could totally do you one better!” Lance exclaimed, leaping forward and throwing his hands onto the counter. “I’m due my lunch break, I’d be happy to walk you down! I was thinking of booking in a new one anyway, so I might as well show you where it is!”

“That would be such a huge help! I’d be so grateful!” The guy smiled, throwing a side-ways glance at Pidge, who ever-so-slightly wrinkled her nose. “You’re sure it’s not a problem?”

“NAH, Pidge has got this! Let me just hang up my apron whilst Pidge finishes your drinks!” Lance ran off, far too eager, far too obvious, and mentally kicking himself as Pidge shot him the stink eye.

Upon his return, the guy – who may or may not be a serial killer, Lance realised too late -  was waiting for him by the opening of the counter.

“Thanks Pidge! Be back in an hour!” Lance called as he threw open the front door, listening to the chime of the bell above the door as he waved. Pidge gave him an eye-roll and a wave that was somehow dripping with sarcasm.

“Have you got a lot of tattoos?” The guy asked as they began the ten-minute walk. He had such an easy-going demeanour that it already felt so comfortable to be around him.

“This crescent moon right here?” Lance tapped the slightly tender patch of skin. “Is my tenth in the last year!”

“Wow, that’s… a lot of tattoos in a really short space of time?” The guy responded, a chuckle in his voice as he sipped his latte.

“Yeah! I started at the college here and happened across the tattoo parlour one day,” Lance wasn’t sure why he thought the guy would be interested, but his statement had sounded like a question. “I hadn’t even considered getting a tattoo before, but then I saw the guy working inside and I had this weird compulsion to… get a tattoo.”

“Oh? What was it about the guy?” The perfect stranger asked, a smirk on his lips as they rounded the corner.

“I dunno, he was doing a tattoo at the time?” Lance could remember it like it was yesterday. “He just had this look on his face, like super concentrated but he looked so serene, so I thought hell, if I ever get a tattoo, this is the guy that’s gotta do it.”

“Wow, that’s kind of profound.”

“I suppose.”

“Does that mean you thought he was cute?”

Lance choked on air and turned to the literal stranger stood next to him, who had a goofy smirk on his face.

“That’s a yes.”

“You know, I don’t know you, like at all, and I’m already regretting offering to help you.” Lance narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms moodily.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” He chuckled, taking another sip of his coffee. “Anyway, if you’re booking another tattoo what do you think you’ll get?”

“Well, the thing about that is I usually let the artist pick?” Lance shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.

He knew he had some Korean letters on his shoulder blades that he really hoped actually said what they were meant to say, but he just had complete faith in him, a kind of un-ending trust. The kind of trust you’d have in a hairdresser you’d been seeing since childhood (Which Lance absolutely had, he still went all the way home to have his hair cut and absolutely refused to have it cut anywhere else).

“You just completely trust him?” The guy responded as Lance gestured for them to walk over the cross walk.

“I mean yeah, he’s never steered me wrong so far, and like I said before, he’s just cool.” Lance shrugged as they headed down a now-familiar street. “He might seem a little stand-offish and rude, but he’s a really, really nice guy.”

It was the quieter part of town, mostly closed-down premises with graffiti littering the metal shutters. For all intents and purposes it should have looked like a shit-hole, but instead it just looked kinda grungey and cool. A lot of the buildings were covered in sprawling ivy, there were well-cared for hedges bordering the roads and huge trees covered in bursts of beautiful greens.

Lance hardly remembered why he’d even ventured down this road to begin with, but he didn’t regret it, and if he’d have been a little more honest, he’d have told the guy side-eyeing him with two coffees in his hands that he did absolutely think that the guy littering his body with ink was about the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

As they approached the shop, the guy grinned with recognition.

“Yep, this is the one I was looking for! Thanks a bunch!” He smiled as he pushed the door open with his elbow, holding it open for Lance to walk in after him.

He felt his whole body warm up as they spotted Keith sat at his desk, pencil between his teeth, pencil behind his ear and long, dark hair tied into a messy ponytail at the nape of his neck. Eyebrows knit together in concentration, the look that had drawn Lance in in the first place. He huffed out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as Keith finally looked up, smile gracing his lips as he took them in.

“Hey! Shiro! You found it!” Keith piped up, a heart-breaking grin spreading across his lips as Lance felt the blood drain from his face. “I was sure you’d get lost and I’d get a panicked phone call because you refuse to use the GPS on your cell.”

“I did get lost, and I found a coffee shop and a guy who happened to know the way!” Shiro turned to Lance, with the stupidest, smuggest grin on his traitorous face.

“Oh, Lance!” Keith yelped as if he’d literally just spotted him, his eyes flitting desperately between the two, as the grin fell from Shiro’s lips.

“Oh my god, Keith is this-“

Keith leapt forward, swiping the coffee from Shiro’s hands and shooting him a look that apparently spoke volumes as Shiro’s words fell dead on his tongue.

“Wow… what a, hah, what a coincidence, right?” Lance coughed awkwardly, Shiro, however, looked like he’d won the fucking lottery as his eyes danced happily between them.

“So you’re Lance?” Shiro piped up, Keith slapped a hand to his face, his eyes closed with a frustrated pout.

“And you’re Shiro…” Lance responded, recalling all the conversations he and Keith had shared whilst Lance tried to distract himself from the needle making quick work of his skin. This was the guy that Lance had assumed was Keith’s boyfriend.

If Lance didn’t have a chance before, he _definitely_ didn’t have shred of a chance now. And even if he did, he wasn’t sure if he could stand to break the heart of this literal Adonis.

“I take it that means you’ve heard of me,” Shiro smiled, dropping to perch on the edge of one of the many beds scattered about the parlour. “Aw, Keith, you tell people about me?”

Keith groaned unhappily as Lance glanced away uncomfortably, his cheeks probably pinker than he hoped they’d be. He knew he didn’t have a hope in hell, it just sucked to have it shoved in his face, not that they had to hide their relationship, it was none of his business, and they were as good as strangers to him.

“Yeah, I tell people how much of a nightmare you are.” Keith huffed. Lance thought about leaving when something jolted him suddenly.

“Wait, you said ‘so you’re Lance’” Lance spoke aloud, Shiro turned to him with an incredulous look on his face.

“Yeah?”

“Does that mean… you knew that I existed before today?” Lance continued, dropping a hand to the desk beside him. “Does that mean, Keith? You talk about me?”

Shiro’s head turned to Keith, with a smirk on his face and shrugged, as if to say ‘don’t look at me’.

“Yeah, I mean, I talk about all my clients…” Keith drifted off, his eyes barely lifting from the floor.

“No you don’t?” Shiro wondered aloud, Keith re-clapped a hand to his face.

“Okay, I don’t. But, you’re a special case, right?” Keith tried to reason, his words almost failing him.

“I’m special?” Lance gushed, though a little apprehensively, he’d been called special in the past, and it wasn’t always a positive thing.

“I mean, well, there’s not a lot of clients that come in for a tattoo almost once a month and tell the tattoo artist to ‘do whatever’” Keith huffed moodily, dropping down to sit at the desk, grabbing the pencil from behind his ear. “W-what are you doing here anyway?”

Lance fell silent, he had almost completely forgotten why he was actually there at all, a quick glance from Shiro finally reminded him.

“O-Oh, yeah, I came to book another tattoo!” Lance tried not to sound as bright as he felt, knowing that Keith talked about _him_.

Keith looked like he was trying to fight a smile as he nodded, a fond eye-roll thrown in for good measure.

“Suppose I should have guessed,” Keith’s voice was suddenly much softer, as he reached for the leather binder next to his current sketch. “Usual time?”

“You know it!” Lance smiled. He never would have imagined that a tattoo parlour would be one of those places where he could walk in and ask for ‘the usual’. “Any ideas what you’ll do?”

“Actually yes!” Keith brightened considerably, jotting down the time and day on a slip of paper for Lance to take with him, he pushed aside the current sketches and rooted around for a tiny sketch that he handed to Lance. “You mentioned that your birthday was in July, and I know you’re into the whole astrology star-sign stuff, so I thought I’d do a little sketch of your constellation.”

Lance looked down at the paper in his hand, a tiny, yet somehow intricate sketch of the constellation of Leo, trying not to let the knowledge of the fact Keith had planned a tattoo for him without him even having booked an appointment in the first place colour his cheeks a painful shade of red.

“Wow, that’s really nice, that’s super thoughtful of you, I love it!” Lance grinned, handing it back after snapping a picture of it on his phone. “I love it so much that I’ll just ignore the dig about the star-sign thing.”

“I don’t get it, it’s just… coincidence, it’s so vague it could be true for anyone!” Keith teased, his fingers running across the small slip of paper in his hand.

“Nope, you are the textbook definition of a Scorpio!” Lance claimed confidently.

“But… I’ve never told you when my birthday was…” Keith’s expression fell. “How did you…?”

“I told you! You’re the quintessential Scorpio!” Lance chuckled, picking up his appointment slip and thrusting it into his pocket, like he’d even need a reminder. “You didn’t have to tell me your birthday for me to know.”

“Wow,” Shiro scoffed, making them both jump, it seemed as if they’d both completely forgotten he was even there.

Lance quickly made his excuses and left, offering them both a friendly wave in farewell and sauntered out of the shop, trying not to let the spring in his step show too much.

 

“Oh man.” Shiro scoffed as the door shut behind Lance, Keith refused to make eye contact with him. “That’s the guy?!”

“I should have never told you that.” Keith bit. “Remind me not to tell you anything, ever. Nothing, no more, ever.”

“Remind me why you haven’t asked him out?” Shiro smirked, taking a sip of his coffee with that ceaseless, smug grin on his face.

“You have met me before, haven’t you?” Keith gestured to his general form. “When have I ever asked another person out?”

“I mean, sure, but this could be the one that you finally… y’know, break the chain with?”

“Why break the habit of a lifetime.” Keith muttered, tracing thin lines on the sketch he was working on for a customer he had later that afternoon. “Besides, I don’t even know if he’d be interested in me.”

“Then that makes you an idiot, because he was gushing over you the entire way here,” Shiro scoffed, placing his coffee beside him on the tattooing table and clasping his hands together by his chin. " _Oh, he’s so talented, he’s so cool, he looks so serene when he’s concentrating,_ ”

“Was that supposed to be an impression of Lance?” Keith asked, dumbfounded. “W-wait. Did you say _serene_?! He actually said that about me? Or are you over-dramatizing it, like you always do.”

“No, those were absolutely his own words, I swear it.” Shiro placed a hand on his heart. “And before you say something like ‘oh why hasn’t he asked me out if he likes me’, I’ll bet he thinks that you and I are dating.”

“What?! Why would he think that?!” Keith exclaimed, genuinely shocked at such a suggestion.

“Hey, enough of that, you’d be lucky to be dating me, buddy.” Shiro scolded. “But seriously, I bet because you’ve talked about me before, and we’re so familiar with each other, he totally thinks we’re dating.”

“Why would someone just assume something like that without asking?” Keith asked himself more than anything, knowing full well that he’d been a culprit of that in the past.

“To save themselves from humiliation, to make sure they don’t embarrass themselves in front of someone they very clearly like?”

“Yeah, okay, Shiro, I get it.”

Keith dropped back to lean against the leather back of his chair, folding his arms and knitting his brows.

“So… what should I do?” Keith asked.

“God, do I really have to answer that?!” Shiro groaned pushing himself away from the table. “Ask. Him. Out.”

“Okay, so… what if he says yes?” Keith countered, eyes darting about the shop, feeling something close to tentative excitement curling in his gut.

“You… do a little dance of celebration?” Shiro suggested unhelpfully.

“Did I ever tell you that you’re just… so funny?” Keith deadpanned. “Look at me, busting a gut at your hilarity. I meant what then, I haven’t even thought about what we’d do, do we go for dinner? Go to the park? Go to a zoo?!”

“Zoo! Yes! Zoo! That’s a great idea! I love the zoo!” Shiro clapped his hands together encouragingly.

“Shiro, I’m asking out Lance, not you.”

“Would it kill you to take your oldest friend out to the zoo once in a while?!” Shiro cried. “Zoo’s don’t have to exclusively be for dates, Keith.”

“Jesus, fine! I’ll take you to the zoo!”

 

“Lance, you’ve been staring at that slip of paper for far too long now.” Pidge huffed from the other side of the counter. “I need you to leave so I can lock up.”

“He called me SPECIAL. Pidge.” Lance enthused. “Do you know what that means?! I’m the only client that he talks about OUTSIDE OF WORK.”

“I heard you the first four times, Lance.” Pidge had well and truly lost all of her patience, and her grumbling stomach was not making her any more empathetic. “Can we leave now.”

“I just, I just love his handwriting.” Lance gushed, tracing a finger over the letter M in Monday. “God I wish Shiro wasn’t so nice so I could at least TRY to steal his man.”

“Did you say Shiro?” Pidge asked out loud, like she’d finally realized something she’d been pouring over for hours. “I KNEW I recognised him!”

“You know him?!”

“YES! He lives with my brother across the other side of the country!” Pidge exclaimed, clasping Lance’s cheeks between her hands, squishing his face in anguish. “I swear to you, they are NOT dating. If it’s the tattoo-artist friend that Matt’s told me about, they are DEFINITELY not dating, in any sense of the word!”

Lance gawped.

“Are you sure?!” Lance sputtered through his squished face-hole. “Are you sure you’re sure?!”

“I’m almost 100% positive!” Pidge exclaimed. “I can’t believe I never made the connection before! Prosthetic, nose scar! How many muscled dudes fit that description?! Not many! Now can we please just fucking go home?!”

 

Keith thought about dropping in at the coffee shop, he knew that Lance worked there, he even knew what days and hours he worked, which… sounded horrifying and creepy but really it was just quick glances as he walked past on his way to work. He’d never even thought about waving, poking in his head to say hi, he wasn’t sure if it breached some sort of… tattoo-artist… client… professional relationship boundary?

He’d have thought that knowing that he might have a chance with Lance would encourage him to try, but if anything it only made him more nervous, tenfold if it were possible. The excited nervousness in his gut curdled and he ended up speed-walking past with his head down and glaring at the sidewalk. It was a miracle that Lance never seemed to notice him.

He wondered that if he was nervous walking past a coffee shop, how was he supposed to tattoo this guy in a couple days time?! Would he be a shaking mess? Would the lines be all jagged? Would he have to do it in a place where Lance would never be able to see it without the assistance of a mirror?

Thoughts about places where he could give Lance secret tattoos filled his mind and he all but slapped himself in the face again for the third time in less than twenty four hours, if he continued like that he was definitely going to give himself a bruise.

He wanted more than anything to address the whole… Lance assuming that he and Shiro were an item, but it didn’t feel right to just wander in and say ‘uh, by the way? Shiro is just a really good friend of mine’ without it sounding narcissistic and presumptuous.

He threw open the door of the parlour and tried to concentrate on his work, but his eyes kept flitting to the tattoo of Lance’s constellation. He for some reason let his mind wander again, maybe one day he’d get a Scorpio constellation in the same place on his body, so that they’d… match.

It was so sickeningly sweet and something that may not ever even be a possibility. The problem now was that Shiro had done a great job of getting his hopes up and he was now investing too much emotion in a what if.

The day dragged until lunchtime, when Shiro popped in with another coffee and a stupid smile on his face.

“What is that smile? I hate that smile. You’ve been doing that since you got here.” Keith muttered, accepting the coffee begrudgingly. “Are your cheeks not beginning to hurt from your perpetual smugness?”

“I can’t lie, yes, it does hurt.” Shiro scoffed as he dropped himself into the chair beside Keith, leaning forward to watch Keith tattooing a thai-style lion into someone’s lower leg. Keith did a quick job of introducing Shiro to the client and they settled into comfortable conversation.

“So? Why the smile.” Smirked Rolo from the tattoo table. Shiro chuckled and clapped his hands together, ready to spill.

“Well, I popped into the coffee shop, as you know,” Shiro begun like he was beginning an epic tale of adventure and strife. “And I spoke to Lance.”

“Great.” Keith responded flatly, dipping the end of his tattoo gun into the ink.

“Oh hey, no way, Lance? The guy you were talking about last time I saw you?” Rolo responded with amusement in his voice.

“God, you DO talk about him a lot!” Shiro grinned. “Well, if it makes you feel better, all he did was gush over you today. I think he’s expecting me not to say anything? But man, do I love to stir the pot.”

“You’re the worst.” Keith grunted.

They were all silent for a couple of seconds.

“So what did he say?” Rolo and Keith spoke in unison.

“Aw, I thought you’d never ask!” Shiro groaned in relief. “He was just going on and on about how great you were, how thoughtful and nice, etcetera. Turns out his colleague at the coffee shop is Matt’s younger sister, so she obviously butted in and filled me in on all the retro-active gushing he’d been doing for the last year!”

“Shut up!” Rolo chuckled, trying desperately not to move and nudge Keith.

“No way, Katie works down the road?” Keith desperately tried to ignore the mention of ‘gushing’, he could feel a tremor threatening to mess up his intricate needle work.

“Yup! Matt had mentioned it to me, but I never thought the world would be so damn small!”

“So what did Katie say?” Rolo encouraged, lapping this up far too much, Keith regretted trying to build such a good rapport with his clients, and swore never to do it again.

“Well! Apparently she goes by the nickname that Matt gave her as a kid, Pidge,” Shiro corrected. “But she was totally saying that since the first time he came to you he’s been complaining about how cute you are, and how it’s ‘soooo unfair’ for you to be so pretty.”

“Pretty?” Keith scoffed, feeling the heat crawl up his neck. “I’m not pretty.”

“Take it, it’s better than anything I’ve ever gotten.” Rolo scoffed.

“So? Really believe that he’s not interested in you?” Shiro spoke with finality, and rather than respond, Keith simply rolled his eyes and tried to fight the goofy smile that threatened to give Shiro the satisfaction of being right.

 

Lance rolled over in his bed, he’d begun his weekend but literally couldn’t think of a single thing he wanted to do. His every thought had been consumed with things left unsaid.

Shiro and Pidge seemed intent on destroying any of Lance’s pride or sense of self-respect, and Shiro seemed to be a wily one, he couldn’t decide whether or not Shiro was trustworthy, or was just spilling all of Lance’s secrets out to Keith the minute he walked out.

He imagined that it was the latter that was the truth.

Though maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing. He rolled over and glanced at his phone, noticing a couple of missed calls from Hunk, though this wasn’t unusual, there were a lot more calls than there normally was, it seemed Hunk was pretty desperate, but as per usual, didn’t bother to leave a voicemail.

He pressed the phone to his ear and heard the jarring sounds of the call connecting, and then the excited voice of Hunk come through the receiver.

“Zoo!”

“Zoo?”

“We’re going to the zoo!”

 

“There’s absolutely no need for this.” Keith muttered, covering his face as Shiro donned a giraffe hat proudly on his head and an ice cream in his hand.

“I forgot how wild city zoos were!” Shiro beamed as they wandered through the lemur exhibit.

Keith could appreciate animals, he loved the legendary Honey Badger, and Zebras for their aesthetic value, but he didn’t like that a lemur could just… climb onto his head.

And that it did, every time he’d ever been to the zoo, school trips, trips with Shiro’s family, any creature left to roam would immediately find a home atop his head.

“Keith! Stay still, that is the cutest thing I have ever seen!” Shiro was so excited he slammed his half-eaten ice-cream into the nearest bin to pull his phone out and take a picture. “You could at least… smile?”

“What… what about this situation would make you think I’m happy?!” Keith exclaimed, gesturing to the animal now threading it’s tiny, creepy fingers through his hair. “Can you please… shoo it away?”

“I think it kin’s with you!” Shiro beamed, turning the phone to show the picture to Keith, who regarded it with a pout.

“Want me to send it to you, so you can use it as a profile picture?” Shiro teased, to which Keith nodded… begrudgingly.

“Oh hey! No way! I’ve always wanted a lemur to climb on me like that!” Keith turned slowly to take in a hulking great hunk of man, with a bright smile on his face, his eyes almost glittering as he admired Keith’s new accessory.

It took him far longer than it should have to notice that a stony-faced Lance was stood beside him, clutching an old-school polaroid camera in his hand as he stared at Keith and his Lemur friend.

“God.” Keith exhaled as Shiro exclaimed in recognition.

“Lance! What are you doing here?! What are the chances!” Shiro exclaimed happily, throwing his arms around him like an old friend.

“Oh wait! Lance, you know these guys?!” The huge guy with a sparkle in his eyes and skin like caramel motioned to the two of them, Lance nodded slowly as he brought up a hand to pat Shiro on the shoulder absently.

“Y-yeah, this is Keith. And this-“ He gestured to Shiro. “Is Shiro. Guys, this is my friend Hunk.”

“How do you know them?” Hunk asked.

Keith hadn’t expected this to be a difficult question, but it seemed to fill Lance with such terror that Keith could only imagine the worst.

Though of course, like always, Shiro came to the rescue.

“Keith is Lance’s tattoo artist!” Shiro slapped them both on the back, like he’d not only won the lottery once, but twice! Keith was running out of similes to explain Shiro’s shit-eating grin.

“OOOOOOOOhhhhhh.” Hunk’s mouth fell into the classic circle of realization. “This is Keeeeiith.”

“Yes, Hunk. Yes, this is Keith. My tattoo artist.” Lance sounded far more pissed off than he needed to be. Keith couldn’t help but feel a little put out at his tone.

“Is that a… bad thing?” Keith asked.

“No!” Lance exploded, a little too quickly, a little too loudly. It made Keith feel at least a little better.

“No! It’s a very good thing, right, Hunk.” Shiro beamed.

“Such a good thing! In fact, I suddenly need to use the bathroom!” Hunk clapped his hands together before reaching towards Shiro. “Care to join me, Shiro?”

“Wow, I mean, of course! I’d be honoured!”

And with that, the two sauntered off together, beaming like fools.

“So…” Lance tried, Keith appreciated the attempt, but the atmosphere was so thick, and it wasn’t like he could run away? He had a lemur on his head. He’d be arrested for kidnapping an animal, even if the animal in question really seemed to WANT to go with him.

“Yeah, I have a lemur on my head. How’s your day going?” Keith’s attempt was a little better, and it seemed to work, the tension in Lance’s shoulders seemed to let up at least a little.

“I mean, I’d kill for a lemur to the head, so my day is not going as well as yours’ by my account.” Lance grinned. “Mind if I?”

He lifted the polaroid camera in his hands and smiled.

“I guess not.”

Keith had expected Lance to just… snap a picture of Keith and a Lemur. Instead, he turned to rest his shoulder against Keith’s, highlighting just how very slightly taller he was and pointed the camera at them both. Using his free hand to point at the lemur, he angled it so that he could see them both reflected in the mirrored square on the front of the camera.

“Smile!” Lance grinned excitedly and snapped the photo.

Keith _had_ expected Lance to move away, instead he stayed glued to his side, slipping the picture out of the bottom of the camera and watching as it slowly began to develop.

Both their breaths hitched in unison as the picture became totally clear.

Because god, if it wasn’t the cutest picture that either of them had ever seen. It was so cute. Lance had an… unabashed grin on his face, he looked so genuinely excited. Keith had an expression on his face that was just so _him_ , a mildly grumpy resentful smile.

It was so unlike the current atmosphere, out of context they looked like a couple that had been together for years, as opposed to two almost strangers that very clearly had the hots for each other but were both too scared to say anything.

They looked at the photo for a couple more seconds, smiling like proud parents before they realised that that photo was not reality, there was still an awkward tension between them. Lance stepped away slowly, a tentative smile on his face.

“Okay…” Keith huffed, only still vaguely aware of the lemur on his head. “I uh, I have a lemur on my head, so I’m kinda hoping that… that’ll help me with what I’m about to say?”

Lance remained quiet, but his eyes were no longer staring at the floor.

“I’m trying to think of it as like taking a swig of whiskey before a presentation?” Keith attempted a comparison, he was a tattoo artist, he didn’t do a lot of presenting. “Like Dutch courage I guess? Because… this is probably the first time I’ve ever done this? Out loud?”

“Yeah…” Lance’s eyes danced about the place, glancing from the lemur, to Keith’s cheeks, to dare to look at his eyes, his lips.

“Damn. Do you do this? Can you do this?” Keith asked.

“Do what?”

“I think you know what.”

“Oh yeah, I know, its just fun to watch you struggle.”

“Wow, yeah, I’ve been so enamoured with the idea of you that I forgot that you’re kind of an asshole.”

“Enamoured?”

“I would say poor choice of words, but that’d be lying.”

“Wow, you’re pretty blunt, huh?”

Keith sighed, he could feel the lemur on his head scurrying about, obviously just as uncomfortable as the two of them.

“Yeah, I’ve been told that before.” Keith responded.

They fell silent once more.

“So?” Lance shrugged, his eyes falling to the polaroid in his hand. “Are we doing this?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

 

Hunk and Shiro decided that they’d spend the rest of the day at the zoo together. Lance wouldn’t have minded if it wasn’t for the fact that he spent the entire day _wanting to hold Keith’s hand but not knowing how or if it was too soon._ So he spent a lot of the time with his hand just… there… awkwardly, in the space between them, fingers twitching like…  a twitchy, scared fool.

Because, really, did it count as dating if they just happened to be spending the day together after they’d decided to give… _it_ a shot?

The worst thing was at the end of the… day, they kind of stared at each other. Which meant that so did Hunk and Shiro, who stared so intently that they both got terrified and ran away without a proper goodbye. It was like being in high school again, and Lance had to admit that it felt as exciting as it did back them.

He was so wrapped up in, well, Keith, that he’d almost forgotten he was supposed to be getting tattooed by him the next day. And when he awoke on that Monday morning, he was gripped with terror once more, mostly because they hadn’t even exchanged numbers, and he was wondering if it’d be really cheeky to ask for his tattoo for free.

You don’t… charge the person you're dating for tattoo’s, right? That’s one of the perks of dating a tattoo artist, right?! He ran it through in his head the entire walk to the parlour, he’d decided to head over a little early with croissants, because… they… were dating. That’s what… date-mates? Did, right?

Lance had dated before, so why was everything so tense? Maybe because he was utterly terrified of fucking it up.

When he walked in and saw Keith sat at his desk, sporting a pair of reading glasses he’d never seen before and Lance felt like all the wind had been knocked out of his lungs. He clutched the croissant bag to his chest and bit back a groan, this boy was going to be on his death certificate his cause of death.

“Hey! Keith!” Lance spoke up, pretending his breath wasn’t as erratic as it felt. “I brought you a croissant.”

Keith’s head shot up, and a smile immediately lit up his face. He slammed his hands onto the desk and stood up, marching over to Lance with some kind of… determination in his step. He grabbed the croissants and threw them onto the desk.

“Hey, Lance.” He breathed before grabbing Lance’s shoulders and pulling him towards him. “I’m gonna kiss you, because I don’t like the tension. Is that okay?”

What?!

Instead of saying – ‘what’ - Lance just… nodded, because what the fuck do you say to something like that?! Definitely not no!

So Keith leaned in, and their lips touched, and it was all kinds of wonderful and magical because Keith was kissing him. Fireworks and sparks flew and all that jazz, but more than anything, it felt like the tension just oozed out of them, where Keith’s fingers were once digging into Lance’s shoulders, they were now softly holding.

Lance felt his shoulders relax as he leaned a little more into it, his hands coming up to rest on Keith’s waist. Keith pulled away, far too soon, and he sighed.

“Okay, cool. Now we can eat croissants.” Keith smiled, letting go of Lance’s shoulders and turning to the desk.

“Boy oh boy, I mean, I hope you brought me a croissant to go along with that show.”

Lance hadn’t even noticed Shiro sat in the plush chair by the TV, cup of tea in hand and amusement on his face.

“You’re still here, don’t you have a job or something?” Lance smirked sarcastically. “And no, but I can rip off the end of mine and share it with you?”

“Wow, now that’s a real friend, I don’t see Keith making compromises like that.” Shiro grinned, raising his cup of tea in recognition.

“You didn’t even give me a chance!” Keith groaned, tearing the end of his croissant off and throwing it at Shiro, hitting him in the cheek.

 

Keith felt like a letch. He currently had a topless Lance stood in front of him, and he was trying everything he possibly could to not just… stare like a creep.

He kind of had a right to, but Shiro was there giving him those… judgemental eyes. In reality he was trying to find the best spot to put Lance’s new tattoo. He couldn’t help but think about a spot on his torso where HE didn’t have a tattoo, so that if things worked out – which he really hoped they would – he could actually make his matching dream a reality.

He knew for a fact that he didn’t have a tattoo on the left hand side of the middle of his back. He wandered around so that he was now staring at the sloping plane of Lance’s back, his eyes followed the dip of his spine as it fed into the top of his jeans, it was compulsion that made him reach his fingertips to trace the spot he was imagining.

“Jesus, your hands are so cold!” Lance shivered, Keith watched gooseflesh disperse across Lance’s tan skin.

“Oh, sorry,” Keith apologised, but he didn’t really mean it. “I think I’ve found the spot.”

He reached for the transfer and laid it across the spot, stopping suddenly, his hands freezing. Was it the left hand side or the right hand side he had free?

“Keith, everything okay?” Lance asked, noticing how Keith had completely frozen up.

“Um, yeah, one sec.”

Without much explanation, he stepped in front of Lance so he could see himself in the mirror, spun and lifted his shirt. He nodded in affirmation, definitely left.

He continued applying the transfer and pulled away the thin sheet of paper, he didn’t usually apply transfers, but there was a lot of straight lines and he still wasn’t sure if he trusted himself not to get nervous around Lance.

“What was that all about?” Lance asked, climbing onto the table, getting comfortable, turning his head to the left so he could see Keith.

“Um. Nothing?”

Lance took that as explanation enough before it really seemed to be bothering him.

“No, seriously, why did you check your own back?”

Keith suddenly heard a huge laugh come from Shiro and winced slightly. He watched a smile spread across Lance’s face, but luckily for Keith and unluckily for Shiro, Lance decided not to press it any further.

 

Lance bit his lip, hard. He was bad with pain, but seeing that concentration on Keith’s face was enough to keep him going, and it took all of twenty minutes.

Keith applied the final spray of cooling liquid and wiped it off.

“All done, how was it?” Keith smiled, gazing down at his handiwork. Lance nodded wordlessly, knowing that any kind of voice that would come out of him now would be high-pitched and embarrassing. “Come on, let’s look at it.”

Lance climbed off the table, trying not to wince too obviously, he stepped towards the mirror and turned, completely enamoured with the angular lines and the accuracy of the dots.

“Oh wow,” Lance breathed, it was so simple. It should have felt underwhelming, but then he remembered that this tattoo had been planned long before the appointment had been.

“Wow, it looks really nice,” Keith admired his own handiwork, “Let me get it all covered up for you, and then you’re done.”

“Aw, already?” Lance whined quietly.

Shiro exhaled another loud laugh.

“Seriously, Shiro! Do you not have a job or something to get back to?!” Lance called moodily.

“Ignore him, he’s old and bitter.” Keith whispered, applying some cream and laying clingfilm across the tattoo, and sticking it down. “Since we’re done here, and I don’t have anything else to do today, should we go out for a proper first date?”

“Oh my god, you said it out loud!” Lance breathed, grinning and reaching for his shirt, pulling it over his shoulders and letting it lay gently on his tender skin. “But yeah, I can do that.”

“Before you ask Shiro, you are not invited this time!” Keith shouted before he even had a chance to interrupt. He turned to Lance after slinging on his leather jacket (BECAUSE OF COURSE). “There’s a museum down the road just full of crazy shit, wanna go?”

“Does a bee make honey?!” Lance wasn’t entirely sure why he’d said it, but there it was. “Let’s go!”

They waved farewell to Shiro who seemed content to watch daytime TV and drink tea, manning the phone in place of Keith. They stepped out into the springtime air and rather than falter like before, Lance slipped his hand in Keith’s at his first opportunity.

“Hey, I do actually have a question for you,” Lance suddenly piped up, Keith hummed in response. “What does my Korean tattoo mean?”

A soft smile played upon Keith’s lips for a millisecond.

“Maybe I’ll tell you in fifteen years’ time?” Keith smiled, his voice so soft and somewhat vulnerable.

“Is that a promise?” Lance asked, just as tentative.

They locked eyes and nodded in unison, wandering off into the spring afternoon, fingers intertwined tightly. Fifteen years was a long time, but suddenly the college tuition, the job searches, the mortgage contracts and everything in between, didn’t feel so daunting. Maybe they’d be lucky enough to get more.

-

“It doesn’t just mean Korean Beef does it?”

Keith kept quiet, the tiniest hint of a smirk playing on his lips.

“Goddammit Keith.”

**Author's Note:**

> See?! All cute, happy things here!  
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Tumblr - Foxsmo_lder


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